Bits and Bites....

It's been a bit of a sad week. Let me qualify that. I feel sad due to some events that occurred in the past week.
Last Sunday a pastor from an interior church from our federation, came to our house to ask if we could help him because he had a tumor that needed to be operated on. Let me back up a bit and explain that the reason he is here in Sentani is because his wife had a baby. They didn't want to give birth in their village and so they decided to come here. First of all, it is much closer and cheaper for them to go to Merauke, a city in the south, but it is more exciting to come here to Sentani. There are funds they can apply for to help pay for the cost of the flight and funds for the medical care needed. His wife delivered a healthy baby a couple weeks ago. Before coming to our house, he had gone to our neighbours saying that his wife had a tumour and needed to go to the government hospital in Jayapura. He had also gone to our friends J and D saying that they needed money for medical care. During his pleas for money, he dropped the name Rev. Versteeg many times in the hopes that that would make us feel like we should help him. He is trying his best to fraudulently obtain large amounts of money. Have you forgotten that he is a pastor??? (never mind that this position was obtained in a dubious manner) This is not the first time he has done this. When the leaders of the church are behaving in such a manner, it leaves one feeling rather disheartened. There are good people in our church but they are being overshadowed by those behaving in a criminal manner. Please pray for the people interior who's lives are a struggle every day.
The second event that made me sad is that the biological mother of Ritha's oldest daughter showed up unexpectedly. She called her older sister and told her to tell Ritha's daughter when she passed by on her way home from school, that she was coming to get her. Ritha has raised this girl since she was little and all the official paperwork says that Ritha is her mother but because Ritha's husband is dead, and he being the blood relative (the girls biological mother is his younger sister), she has no legal claim to the girl. Please pray that this situation will be resolved in a manner that is to His glory.
The third event is one involving Ice. About a year and a half ago she had a boyfriend. That guy was not a good guy and mistreated her in the worst manner. Last week he came and paid the fine that was levied for his actions. He gave 2.6 million rupiah and a pig (usually worth 10 million) to Ice's family. In situations such as this one, the family of the mother of the girl who was wronged, receives the payment. So Ice's dad gave them the money and said that he would keep the pig. He called the local relatives together to discuss what to do with the pig. Cook it, sell it, save it... In the meantime, the family of Ice's mom came and stole the pig because they feel they should have the pig. Does any of this seem crazy to you too???? Anyways, this whole thing bothered Ice's husband quite a bit and that combined with some other issues has made him on edge. So when Ice was not being too terribly respectful of him, he flew off the handle and threw a shoe at her. She believes that he didn't mean for it to hit her, but it hit her in the middle of her back. He became very frightened and ran off and as of Saturday night had not yet returned. This is the first time he has done anything like this. I think he's actually a pretty good guy. So I've been trying to counsel Ice a little and help her to repair the damage. Please pray that he will return and they will be able to work things out. In a side note, Ice's dad was rather frightened and wanted to take her to the hospital after it happened. He came looking for me but I was gone so he chartered a car and off they went. At the hospital Ice received 4 different kinds of pills to take. In my uneducated opinion, a bag of ice would have been sufficient really....